San Diego Padres: What a Kirby Yates extension might look like

As the offseason rolls on, one thing to keep in mind is the San Diego Padres interest in extending closer Kirby Yates.

We’ve heard mentions of talks between the San Diego Padres and Kirby Yates this offseason, but nothing substantial has taken place to this point.

The last we heard on this front from A.J. Preller he said something to the effect of we’ll pick up those talks once we have a better feel of what our future payroll will look like.

This feels like another situation that is being held up by the Wil Myers‘ contract.

With the Padres payroll already over $140 million for the 2020 season, Preller is really hamstrung on what else he can do.

And the same is true with Yates. Because if Preller can move Myers, that opens up more money for the 2021 and 2022 seasons as well with Myers being owed $22.5 million the next three seasons.

If Preller can move that money, and perhaps the future money owed to players like Austin Hedges and Manuel Margot, it would open up things a little more for an extension to get done with Yates.

But I most certainly think San Diego would like to work something out with the All-Star closer.

In his two-plus years with San Diego he has a 2.31 ERA in 179.1 innings with 278 strikeouts and a WHIP of 0.97.

He’s clearly become one of the best closers in all of baseball. And after signing Drew Pomeranz to a four-year deal, the Padres are hoping those two form a shutdown back-end of the bullpen for years to come.

What will it cost

Yates is projected to make just $6.5 million in arbitration for the upcoming 2020 season, so you can bet his AAV will be higher than that going forward.

This should be pretty easy to figure out as we have some really good, recent comparisons.

The Atlanta Braves signed Will Smith this offseason to a three-year, $39 million deal with a $13 million team option and $1 million buy out.

Smith is 30-years-old and is coming off back-to-back really good seasons with the San Francisco Giants.

This past season he posted a 2.76 ERA in 65.1 innings with 96 strikeouts and a WHIP of 1.02.

While Yates has been much more dominant the past two seasons than Smith, the Padres’ closer is also two years older.

And when you consider that the Padres just gave 31-year-old Drew Pomeranz four years and $34 million, which works out to be $8.5 million a year, you know Yates will get a good bit more than that in an extension.

Craig Kimbrel will be making $16 million a year the next two seasons, but I’m not sure Yates goes that high.

Last offseason Zack Britton signed a three-year deal for $13 million a year with a team option for a fourth year.

With that deal and the Will Smith one, I think we have a pretty good idea of what an extension might look like for Yates.

I think the Padres could sign him to three more years after the 2020 season for $14 million a year.